THE WORD OF GRACE DEVOTION FOR THE WEEK OF AUGUST 24, 2015PRAYING THE WILL OF GOD1 JOHN 5:14-15, “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”Beloved, I believe that 1John 5:14-15 provides to us the secret to answered prayer. Let us look at this and learn to apply it to our lives.Beloved, when it comes to prayer, the first element of prayer is to pray or ask. I realize that this may sound simple but 1 John 5:14says, “but if we ask.” So we need to ask. James 4:2-3 says, “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.Secondly, the key to answered prayer is praying according to the will of God. We often wonder if what we are praying will be answered or provided for us. 1 John5:14-15 gives us the assurance that if we pray according to God’s will, “we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”So how do we pray according to His will? Beloved, His word is His will! Beloved, our prayers should be more than asking for a million dollars. Our prayers need to be set in God’s will and word. When we pray we may need to ask ourselves, “Does God desire to answer this prayer request? Is this a legitimate prayer request or am I merely asking for something, “to spend it on my passions?”Beloved, I acknowledge that many times when I pray I am asking for the Lord to fulfill my will, my desires and my requests. I must learn to pray to fulfill His Will for my life! Then when I pray I can have the confidence that if I ask anything according to His will, He will hear me. And I know that if He hears me, whatever I ask, I know that I have the petitions that I have asked of Him!Beloved, 1st John is a book of assurance. In 1st John we have the assurance that we can know that we are saved and the assurance that we can know that the Lord will answer our prayers.Beloved, when we pray, let us pray the will of God for our lives. Remember, His Word is His will. May our prayers be rooted in God’s Word!I pray that you will have a blessed week! I love you and I will be praying for you!In Him,Pastor Joe

THE WORD OF GRACE DEVOTION FOR THE WEEK OF AUGUST 17, 2015THE WORD CONFIRMED:2 PETER 1:19-21, “And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; 20knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, 21for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”Beloved, I have often been asked if we can trust the Bible as the Word of God. The answer is an absolute yes. Given the historical, archaeological, and spiritual accuracy I believe that we can confirm that the Bible is trustworthy.Another question will then come, “But, wasn’t the Bible written by men? How did it come from God?” Good question! Beloved, that is where inspiration comes in. The word "inspire" comes from the Latin, meaning to breathe on or into. Hence, Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16, "All Scripture is God-breathed." As Norman Geisler and William Nix write, "… inspiration is the process by which Spirit-moved writers recorded God-breathed writings."Inspiration means that human writers were inspired by God and moved by the Holy Spirit to record accurately what God wanted them to preserve. It does not mean God took control of people in the sense of some occult practices known as automatic writing, where the writer is in a trance-like state. It also doesn't mean the writers of the Bible were simply taking dictation. But it does mean that their words were divinely inspired and recorded. Real people, living in real places, recording real historical events, and also communicating God’s real truths, wrote the Bible. 2 Peter 1:21 puts it this way, “Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”Beloved, it is important for us to come to an understating of the truth and reliability of Scripture. When we trust the Word of God, we can then trust the God of the Bible and began to live out its truths. If we do not trust God’s Word then we will not live it. We must trust it in order to abide by it.For we know that we live in a world that, for the most part, has no absolute standard for life and behavior. We are under a system of morality by majority vote—in other words, whatever feels right sets the standard for behavior. That philosophy, however, runs contrary to everything we know about our world. There are absolutes in biology, botany, physiology, astronomy, mathematics, and engineering; all are controlled by unalterable and inviolable laws. The same thing is true in the moral and spiritual dimension. There are fixed laws and those truths are found in Scripture. Beloved we can trust the Bible! It is trustworthy! The Word of God has been confirmed!I pray that you will have a blessed week. I love you and I will be praying for you!In Christ,Pastor Joe

The Word of Grace Devotion for the Week of August 10, 2015Do Good!James 4:17- “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”Beloved, the Book of James is a book of action. It turns Christianity into a verb rather than into anideology. James was a doer. He took the Word of God and placed it into action. In James 1:22 he says, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” In James 2:17 he says, “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”James, the brother of Jesus, understood that it was not enough for a Christian just to say the words, or repeat the Scripture or even to memorize the Word. The Christian needed to take the next step, which is to place the Word of God into action.After all, as the brother of Jesus, James had witnessed the Word of God in action in the life of the Word, Jesus Christ. Each day he had seen Jesus, his brother, live out the Word. He understood that the Word of God works best when it is placed into action.Thus he says in James 4:17, “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” Beloved, so often we are prompted by the Holy Spirit to be His vessel. Sometimes the Spirit tells us to share the Gospel. Other times it is to pray for someone, even in the middle of the night. Sometimes even to offer a helping hand.But rarely do we ever equivocate our inaction with sin. The Word of God however does. Beloved, if we know to do good and we do not do it, to us it is sin. It is missing the mark, falling short of the Lord’s desire for us to love Him and one another.We are His vessels for good use. I pray that this week, when we are prompted by the Holy Spirit to do good, that we would in fact, take action and allow the Lord to use us to minister to a lost and dying world. The world is so desperate for truth. Beloved, may we be purveyors of God truth through our actions. Let us not sin but rather do good and thus glorify God.I pray that you will have a blessed week! I love you and I will be praying for you!In Him,Pastor Joe

The Word of Grace Devotion for the Week of August 3, 2015Once for AllHebrews 10:11-14, “And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, 13from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. 14For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”Beloved, one thing you will notice when you walk into a Calvary Chapel is that there is no crucifix visible. Why? Because Christ’s sacrifice was once for all! His work is finished and He no longer needs to hang on the Cross. His work is complete! In the Old Testament, sacrifices were a daily regiment. That is no longer the case. Jesus was the last sacrifice. He offered up Himself for our sins, once for all.What a joy it is to our hearts to know that we do not need to offer up sacrifices of bulls or goats, lambs or pigeons. All of our sins, past, present and future were taken care of on the Cross. Jesus Christ, “offered one sacrifice for sins forever.”The salvation it provided is forever. Not like the annual sacrifice on the Day of Atonement. Not like the constant sacrifices in the old covenant. This one provided an eternal forgiveness. Old covenant forgiveness was somehow tied to each sacrifice. And new forgiveness had to be sought after the next sin. But here is total forgiveness and complete security. We have been, “perfected forever,” which means to put into a permanent state of complete righteousness by being covered with the righteousness of Christ.Beloved, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ then is effective forever. It is effective for all who believe because it fulfills God's design. It replaces the old inadequate system. It sanctifies the believer. It removes sin and replaces it with righteousness. It destroys the enemy and all who follow him. It brings with it eternal security and it fulfills the promise of God and thus convinces us of His faithfulness. It is so perfect that nothing can be added to it and all we are ever asked to do is believe in it.Beloved, by receiving Jesus Christ into our hearts we can now rest on His completed work in our life and focus on living for Him!I pray that you will have a blessed week! I love you and I will be praying for you!In Him,Pastor Joe

Pastor's Pen

Senior PastorJoe Marquez

Beloved, we are soon to once again celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the human Son of man and the divine Son of God. He is one hundred percent human and one hundred percent God.

While there were many people instrumental in the birth of Christ, this morning we will look at His birth through the eyes of Joseph, His legal father. There is not too much known about the man who would care for Christ as He grew up. We know that Joseph was possibly a carpenter but most importantly we know that he was a righteous man who did the right thing.

When others would have ran away from a responsibility that was not even their own, Joseph stood steadfast and remained faithful to the end. We can learn much from his character and apply his attributes of faithfulness, purity, and perseverance to our own lives.

May you have a Blessed Christmas week and may Christ always be at the center of your lives!

P.S. Come back this evening as we look at the birth of Christ through the Gospel of Luke!